Five Incredibly Stupid Ways People Got Bitten by Alligators and Crocodiles

These people made really bad decisions!

In most instances, it’s pretty easy to avoid being attacked or bitten by an alligator or crocodile. Humans aren’t generally on these big reptiles’ menus.

But people do get attacked, and generally, it seems to happen when humans invade their domains or do something really dumb.

With that in mind, we’ve rounded up five incredibly dumb ways people have been attacked or bitten by alligators or crocodiles in recent years. All these incidents COULD have been easily avoided with a little common sense.

5. Drunkenly peeing into a crocodile-filled lagoon.

This one actually just happened not even two weeks ago. A tourist from the U.S. was drunk in Cancun, Mexico when he wandered away from his hotel and to a crocodile-infested lagoon nearby. Officials believe he missed all the signs that warned about crocs in the area and went to answer the call of nature into the lagoon.

In the process, he ended up bitten and actually lost his right arm. Ouch. Don’t drink and hang out in croc-infested areas.

4. Selfie time!

As has been shown time and time again, selfies are actually leading to increased animal attacks in some areas of the world. So of course, it was only a matter of time before one of our big scaly friends got involved. In January of this year, a story out of Thailand broke about a French woman who stopped to kneel down for a selfie with a crocodile in Thai Park.

You can guess what happened next. Thankfully the big reptile released its grip and she was taken to a hospital for treatment.

So it’s not really that surprising that eventually he got around to letting an alligator bite him too. “This was not a good idea ladies and gentlemen,” he tells his YouTube audience. Yeah, we kind of figured that Coyote. That’s why we’re glad it’s you and not us!

2. Trying to impress a lady.

Lee DePaauw knew the Johnstone River in Australia was infested with crocodiles when the 18-year-old jumped in this past March. But he did it anyway. Why? It was partly due to peer pressure. But mainly, it was an attempt to impress the pretty British tourist he was hanging out with that evening.

Of course, the second he hit the water he was attacked by a four-foot saltwater crocodile. And the bites were severe enough that his arm nearly had to be amputated. But unlike most of the other people on this list, DePaauw told reporters he’d totally do it again because it got him a date with that tourist we mentioned earlier. Love is blind. And dumb apparently.

1. Attempting this stunt:

A zookeeper in Thailand just got finished telling the tourists in the crowd about all the injuries he’s sustained from dealing with crocodiles over the years in his job. Then he proceeded to stick his head into the open mouth of a crocodile.

The rest writes itself. Yep, that was a REALLY stupid idea. It’s probably time to retire from the zookeeper business buddy. You’re lucky to be alive after that stunt.

So there you have it, five examples of things to NOT do next time you’re in alligator or crocodile country. But we shouldn’t really have to tell you that right? We would hope so!